Sebastián Araya's eco-thriller Antartica filming in Andes, Antarctica and Spain

Spanish actor Luis Tosar has signed to star in Chilean director Sebastián Araya’s eco action thriller Antártica, alongside Ginés Garcia Millán. Tosar will play a geologist hired to locate a philanthropist who has gone missing on a field trip in Antarctica. During the rescue expedition, they discover an ancient pyramid buried under the Antarctic ice that questions both the real motives of their quest and the origins of humankind.

The project is structured as a Spain-Chile-Argentina co-production between Spain’s Zircozine, Chile’s Afrofilms, and Argentina’s Tango Films. It will shoot next summer during the Latin American winter in Caviahue, in the Andes in Argentina, and also for 10 days in Antarctica and finally Galicia, in north-west Spain.

Araya has also co-written the screenplay with Julio Rojas, whose credits includeThe Life Of Fish. Rojas also hosts a popular Latin American sci-fi podcast called Caso 63.

Araya is a rewnowned director of TV series in Chile. Antártica will be his third feature following Azul Y Blanco in 2004 and La Salamandra in 2018.

“It’s a fiction inspired by the pressing and very real reality of climate change,” Araya told Screen at the San Sebastian film festival last week.  “In our film, the melting Antarctic ice reveals not only a pyramid but also a past climate disaster. A scar from the past. In this context, the main character played by Luis Tosar is also confronted with personal scars that need healing.”

Producer Farruco Castromán from Zircozine, said he was drawn to the project “because of the topic it addresses, global warming, and the fact it manages to do it as an action thriller”.

“The setting is also key,” he explained. “Antarctica, with all the mystery and myths this place at the end of the earth evokes. The cast will make the film accessible to different markets and audiences.”

Antártica is one of the seven feature projects being showcased at the second edition of Iberseries & Platino Industry, the event showcasing the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American film and TV industries that is taking place in Madrid this week.

This article originally appeared on KFTV's sister site, Screendaily.